ED Droit
Labor Law and domestic workers in Burkina Faso. A contributing study on the african normative frame
by Ophelie KONSIMBO (COMPTRASEC - Centre de Droit Comparé de Travail et de la Sécurité Sociale)
The defense will take place at 14h00 - Salle des thèses Bâtiment C, Travée C1 16 avenue Léon Duguit 33608 Pessac Cedex
in front of the jury composed of
- Bénédicte LAVAUD-LEGENDRE - Directrice de recherche - Université de Bordeaux, Centre de droit Comparé du Travail et de la Sécurité Sociale (COMPTRASEC) - Directeur de these
- Vincent ZAKANE - Professeur - Université Thomas Sankara - Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso - Rapporteur
- Adelle BLACKETT - Full professor - Université McGill - Montréal - Rapporteur
- Lorena POBLETE - Professeure - Université Nationale de Saint Martin - Argentine - Examinateur
- Fabrice HOURQUEBIE - Professeur des universités - Université de Bordeaux, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Comparatives sur les Constitutions, les Libertés et l'Etat (CERCCLE) - Examinateur
African domesticities have been shaped through a long normative process whose origins lie in the pre-colonial era. Community life has generally been organized around the domestic sphere. The household appears to be a central institution for managing both productive and reproductive resources. Subsequently, a new category of workers emerged as a result of socio-political and historical changes. Indeed, these domestic workers operate at the margins of official Labor Laws. Burkina Faso offers an emblematic case study to understand these plural dynamics. Formally, in this West African country, Labor law neither distinguishes domestic workers nor excludes them from its scope. However, the prevalence of the informal economy, a limited knowledge of social customs, and the challenge to transpose international standards lead to a normative crisis and overlapped responsibilities. Moreover, Labor Administration encounters several difficulties to regulate this employment relationship; indeed, it is not the sole authority in charge of the regulation process. All of the above complicates the system's clarity. It may therefore be argued that the viability of the regulatory framework depends upon considering these competing norms and the structure of their interactions.